Faith Tested

Faith Tested

James 1:2 – 4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance finishes its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

We shouldn’t be surprised or fearful of the trials placed before us. The Lord uses these situations to grow us up as Christians. Let me share with you an example of a trial I recently endured.

When I found out that my husband of 19 years had stage 4 Lymphoma, (cancer of the Lymph nodes). I was still in shock at the diagnosis and suddenly fear became my constant companion. A fear of the loss of finances, fear of change and fear of the loss of my husband. Fear had settled in to my every waking moment. It was then that the Lord, who is so very gracious and compassionate, led me to this passage of scripture and I realized that it was not the end of the world as I thought, but it was the beginning of a trial that I was facing. I had a choice at that moment as to how I was going to see this trial through.

I knew that God did not want me to throw my hands up in defeat and scream at how unfair it was and why us, but I believe that he wanted me to see that even though we are Christians; trials do come our way, and we are not to be surprised by that.

These trials are not meant to crush and defeat us, but they are there to test the faith within us and to develop and grow us as children of God. God’s ultimate goal with his children is to make us Christ like and just as Jesus was full of faith in his heavenly father, God wants to train us that we too can put our faith and trust in His goodness and mercy towards us.

Therefore I could go through this trial with confidence and joy because I knew that I was not alone. I knew that God also knew about it, and that he would bring forth a harvest of fruit in my life, that I would not have experienced before had I not walked through this hard time.

If you are facing a trial right now that seems overwhelming to you, I would like to encourage you to know that it is not a personal vendetta that God has against you, but that you can know without a doubt that He will use the trial to teach you more about Him and the result will be a faith greater than you have ever experienced before.

Prayer

Heavenly father, your word says that I am to consider it pure joy when I face trials because of what it will produce in me, I admit that that was not my first response, I ask lord that you open up the eyes of my heart to see your hand at work in the midst of this trial and I thank you for the fruit that it will produce in my life. In Jesus name, amen.